Pastor Challenges the Birmingham News Concerning Anglican Affairs
August 12, 2008
Dear Editors of the Birmingham News:
It was good to see stories addressing the Anglican Communion in Saturday’s Birmingham News. It was as if an embargo had been lifted. As dated as the RNS and AP stories were, they made headway in making folks aware of deep divisions within the Communion, the third largest Christian body in the world.
However, more needs to be said that your readers might make well-informed decisions. This is especially true when the Episcopal Bishop of Alabama gives a glowing report about Lambeth saying specifically, “The strong center of the church held firm” as if the American church and the Diocese of Alabama are a part of the “strong center.” Is that a fiddle we hear? Nothing could be further from the truth. This statement assessing Lambeth could not be deemed accurate in any way by any objective person.
The truth is “the strong center” was not present. Nearly three hundred Bishops from the provinces of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda did not attend Lambeth as a matter of conscience. The people should be told that the “few dissident provinces” we keep hearing about actually represent 70% or more of practicing Anglicans around the world. These provinces are not suggesting something as simple and easily addressed as “The Episcopal Church has erred in doctrine.” They are declaring TEC is no longer a Christian church (not to impugn the character or faithfulness of the many fine Christians within TEC) and that the United States is a mission territory.
When you consider the statements of the Lambeth-attending Global South Primates collectively and individually who are only slightly behind the “boycotting” provinces in their grave assessment, the vast majority (85% or more) of Anglicans consider the American and Canadian branches of Anglicanism apostate having abandoned the faith once delivered. Reflecting on Lambeth, Church of England Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt said the American church would not retreat from “directions foreign to the life and convictions of the vast majority of Anglicans, let alone of other Christians, across the world.” He concludes only one option remains, “orderly separation.” Even the Archbishop of Canterbury concedes that should the American church not turn back the Communion as we know it remains in “grave peril.” And the Episcopal Bishop of Alabama says to the faithful, “the strong center of the church held firm”, as if the American church and its Diocese of Alabama are a part of that center. There is no basis upon which one could build such an argument. It is sophistry and not very good sophistry at that.
[The Global South Primates specifically cite the arrogance of the Western churches in relationship to the deep divisions. “We are concerned with the continuing patronising attitude of the West towards the rest of the churches worldwide. We regret attempts to cause divisions and break the bonds between churches in the Global South, and are distressed that the realities in our churches are often misrepresented and misunderstood in the West.” This is the statement of those present at Lambeth; how much more does it reflect the sentiments of those who did not attend as a matter conscience?
One of the great ironies in all this is that Anglicans like William Wilberforce led the charge to liberate Africans from slavery. Many good Episcopalians, including Alabama’s Bishop Furman Stough, rightly fought for civil rights here in the United States. Now the same White Westerners have turned a deaf ear if not a contemptuous one to a people they enabled to come of age.]
The News’ reporting is not complete without more stories. One could easily be left with the sense of a shallow divide within Anglicanism when the chasm is actually so deep and so wide as to be unbridgeable. The strong center is getting stronger and it no longer considers the corporation called TEC to be Christian in any biblical or historical sense. That’s news worthy of reporting and it makes one wonder why such news goes unpublished and the local implications remain unexplored.
The Rev. Dr. John D. Richardson, Senior Pastor
St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Anglican Mission in America
Episcopal Province of Rwanda
A Constituent Member of the Historic and Worldwide Anglican Communion
As eventually published in the Birmingham News
http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/121947935722490.xml&coll=2
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